Actor and MC Tray Chaney stopped by The Breakfast Club on Tuesday (May 22) to discuss family, growing up a Jehovah’s Witness, and his rise in the entertainment industry.

The veteran actor tells Charlamagne Tha God, DJ Envy and Angela Yee that although his initial foray into entertainment was as a Hip Hop dancer, he was inspired to start rapping by listening to Big Daddy Kane at age eight, recalling, “He’s one the people who really took me seriously as an artist.”

Chaney also credits his acting career beginnings to his skills as a live rapper, explaining that his acting agent first approached him after seeing him perform.

The Saints & Sinners actor reveals that his role as Poot in HBO’s revered series The Wire was actually the first ever acting audition he went on (in 2001), and ended up being his biggest role to date. He shares that after The Wire ended in 2008, he didn’t book his next big job until 2015 when he landed his current role as Kendrick Murphy in Saints & Sinners.

“The grind never slowed up, I got in the streets, I touched the people, I created my own films, we my brother and I] touched the people, we was selling out the trunk the car,” the Washington D.C. native opens up about the period in between his major roles, saying that the lull in his career led him to create and sell his own content.

The multi-talented artist, who released his Strictly About Music studio album in December 2017, has no plans stopping any time soon. “’Undeniable: The Tray Chaney Story’ is going to be something powerful. I have a couple different networks interested,” he says his pending autobiographical documentary.